Job market snapshot

The Mountain region sells itself: Encompassing everything from the high peaks of the Rockies to Southwestern mesas, there’s plenty of space for outdoor activities, from fishing to skiing to hiking. There are multiple urban areas, from Salt Lake City to Denver, where business is booming. The weather is great, with various states in the region offering plenty of heat for sun worshippers and snow for winter enthusiasts.

Like the rest of the country, this region has a high demand for technology workers, says Andrew Butkus, division director for Denver at staffing firm Robert Half Technology. In fact, according to a Robert Half poll of CIOs from the Mountain region, 21% plan to hire for newly created IT positions in the second half of 2017.

Butkus says high-demand IT positions tend to break down into two buckets. In one category are the software-related positions – developers, programmers, software engineers and the like. “There’s a talent shortage across all those positions,” he says. Then there are the network positions, where network security is particularly hot.

He says tech workers generally have the upper hand, notably in cities such as Boulder and Colorado Springs where there’s a lot of economic growth. “Those markets are experiencing talent shortages,” he says, noting that the growing number of telecommunication companies and technology firms in the region has fueled demand.